A. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to the design of an ice chest or cooler which has oppositely arranged lids on the bottom and top portions thereof to allow the chest to be reversed or flipped in use.
B. Description of the Prior Art
There are a large number of prior art patents on various ice chest and cooler designs. There are also various packing designs in the prior art which feature oppositely arranged lids. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,535, shows an improved latch mechanism for a double compartmented box which prevents the simultaneous opening of both sides of the box, thereby preventing the accidental spilling of the contents of one side while the other is being used. The box in question does not appear to be used as an ice chest, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,136, shows a compartmented container for holding small items such as paper clips, stamps and the like, which could be flipped or reversed in use. However, the primary purpose of the container is to allow a convenient display of items in a store. The trays or compartments are relatively shallow and would not conveniently hold iced beverages or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,578,199, shows a portable insulated carrier for cylindrical drink containers, such as soft drinks. Because of its reversible nature, it allows a last in, first out type of operation in use. However, because of its cylindrical nature, the device shown in the '199 reference allows only a single soft drink can to be added or dispensed at one time.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,869, shows a bait container which features oppositely arranged lids. The design is, in effect, an upside down worm can which allows a means for getting the worms to the upper part of the can or container when the fishermen desires to reach for a worm by simply reversing the can orientation. The can is not used as a cooler or ice chest and, in fact, features air openings which would facilitate heat transfer though the material of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,823, shows a more complicated worm container which again features oppositely arranged removable lids. Again, the device is not used as a cooler or ice chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,084, shows a reversible lid container for holding wet baby diapers. Although the container has oppositely arranged lids, the central compartment is partitioned in such a way that it could not be used to load ice, drinks, or the like from either side of the partition.
Despite the above advances in the art, a need exists for an improved ice chest or cooler design which would allow the cooler to be flipped or reversed in use.
A need exists for such a design which would not require extensive changes to the manufacturing process or tooling for manufacturing conventional ice chests.
A need exist for such a design which would be simple in design and economical to manufacture.